2-969-793 - /Heritage Images

Balaclava Heights, 1856. Sketch by '...a Correspondent on board H.M.S. Leander..."The Castle seems of very great extent, covering the whole side of the hill facing the harbour...it must have been built by the Genoese about 1370, when they also colonised several other parts of the Crimea. Before the invention of gunpowder it must have been immensely strong; in fact, impregnable. The walls are for the most part in ruins, except the main connecting wall running down from the top of the hill to the sea-shore, which is built of granite rock. The round tower (on which Admiral Boxer planted the harbour signal-staff) is 480 feet above the level of the sea. The turret is about fifty feet high...The walls are about four feet thick, and not in the least damaged by time. Under the tower is a deep dungeon, which has strong ringbolts at the bottom, evidently for the imprisonment of captives'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.